New editions of AIA Lessons were posted in 2024. They feature one primary document for the teacher with secondary resources added when useful. This is a change from packages of separate documents for students and teachers. Background information is greatly expanded to reduce teachers’ research time, and updated lessons include new images and online content. Assessment templates are suggestions for convenience.
The teacher can adapt K-12 lessons to individual classrooms. Much of the background information is suitable for college students.
Trash Talks (Grades 5-12) Safely-collected trash teaches lessons about archaeology and interpretation.
What Will Survive (Grades 6-10) Starting with their own classrooms, students assess what will survive for archaeologists of the future to discover and interpret.
Basics of Archaeology for Simulated Digs Introduction to archaeology and the AIA Simulated Digs.
Layer Cake Dig (Grades K-2) Young students dig and eat the layers of an archaeological site they can see from the side.
Transparent Shoebox Dig (Grades 2-3) The Transparent Shoebox Dig allows young elementary school students to create stratigraphy and understand the logic of careful excavation.
Shoebox Dig (Grades 3-6) The Shoebox Dig in a cardboard box provides older elementary students the experience of digging a small site top down, sight unseen. Can be modified for Middle School.
Schoolyard Dig (Grades 6-12) This simulated one-layer site prepared in the ground offers Middle or High Schoolers a realistic but limited experience of excavation.
Shoebox Dig and Transparent Shoebox Dig Photos Pictures of materials and layers help the teacher plan a shoebox dig.
Record Sheets for Simulated Digs The teacher can modify these simple record- keeping sheets for young archaeologists.
Mystery Cemetery (Grade 6 and older) A Halloween challenge: using maps and images (or a 3D cemetery if desired), students interpret an already-excavated site to solve a puzzle.
Mystery Cemetery Maps There are two versions of Map 1: in color, and in black and white. If the teacher prefers, students can use the black and white version to color-code their own key. Map 2 provides the option to extend the activity and shows further excavation of the Mystery Cemetery.
Mystery Cemetery Photos These examples of 3D burials are useful for those who cannot create a 3D mini-cemetery in the classroom.
Mystery Cemetery Answer Key Please Email programs@archaeological.org
Mesopotamia & Egypt
Rosetta Stone (Grades 7-10) Writing in cuneiform and hieroglyphic scripts teaches students the association of written symbols with sounds, the difference between translation and transliteration, and the impact of available media on the development of written language.
Greece
Ancient Greek Art: Archaic and Classical Styles (Grades 8-12 and older) This exercise invites close looking at Greek art of the Archaic and Classical periods. Students create an artwork in one ancient style.
Ancient Greek Vase Painting (Grades 8-12) Students look at examples of archaic and classical Greek vase painting and create a clay tile in black-figure and red-figure techniques.
Rome
Roman Feast (Grades 6-12) A Roman Feast can be a fun, educational, and cross-curricular event for anyone who studies Greco-Roman antiquity. Teachers can borrow, adapt, and add to ideas found here.
Roman Clothing Project This overview of Roman clothing teaches the social stratigraphy implied by clothes and includes a hands-on exercise.
Roman Clothing Project: Clothing in Roman Art A companion to the clothing project that illustrates tunics and togas in Roman art and in reconstructions.
Roman Clothing Project Patterns Tunic, palla, and toga patterns help students make simple ancient garments for cloth or paper figures.
Colonial Americas & Medieval Europe
Aztec Codex (Grades 6-7) Students learn about Aztec culture and examine codices describing indigenous life created in Spanish and Náhuatl. They illustrate their own simple codex.
Illuminated Manuscripts (Grades 6-12) The classroom becomes a scriptorium and students design an illuminated word or page in an illuminated manuscript referencing a character of the Middle Ages.
